Truly, Darkly, Deeply by Victoria Selman

Author:Victoria Selman [Selman, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2022-07-06T18:30:00+00:00

THIRTY-TWO

My mother didn’t make the connection with Des either. Ironic, given how quickly she pointed the finger at Matty only a short while later.

He came over the night Des was arrested, bringing a bulging sack of Chinese food from Singapore Garden.

‘What’s the news?’ I asked.

Chinese was our go-to meal whenever we were celebrating.

‘Just a good day,’ he smiled. ‘Bit of a breakthrough on a case I’ve been working on.’

My mother came over, a big smile on her face.

‘What a treat!’

A delicious waft of spring rolls and Peking duck rose up from the bag.

‘What’s the case?’ she asked.

‘I wish I could tell you, but . . .’

She’d heard that before, put her hands up in mock surrender.

‘Yeah, yeah . . . confidential.’

Matty kissed her nose.

‘Did you get seaweed?’ I asked.

‘Got the whole menu pretty much.’

‘Forgot the plum sauce though,’ I said rummaging in the bags.

He helped me look, found the pot stuffed at the bottom.

‘You malign me, madam.’

He put me in a headlock, the opening move in the Prisoner Game.

‘Stop!’

‘Let me hear you beg.’

My mother watched, an odd expression on her face.

‘She’s a bit old for that, Matty.’

‘She’s too old when she can get away.’

But he let me go.

We ate in front of the TV, watched the latest on the arrest, which was basically just a re-hash of everything we already knew.

‘I don’t get it,’ I said.

‘Don’t get what, pumpkin?’

‘There have been thousands of calls to the tip line. What’s so special about this one?’

Matty glanced at my mother the way he always did when he had a story to tell.

‘I hear it was a witness, who called it in.’

‘Really?’ she said.

‘Mm-hm.’

He bit the end off a spring roll, wolfed the thing down in two bites. I helped myself to one before he gobbled the lot.

‘So? Plenty of people have claimed to have seen things.’

‘I heard this guy was different.’

‘Different how?’

‘He was able to describe what the girl was wearing.’

‘That doesn’t make sense. I thought she was found naked.’

‘Aye. Afterwards.’ He drew the word out, laid heavy emphasis on it. ‘The witness saw her before she was killed. Described exactly the clothes she was last seen in. That’s how the police know he was genuine rather than another one of these kooks after their five minutes of fame.’

‘Where did you hear all this?’ my mother asked.

‘Lad at the clinic. Mate of someone on the investigation team, I think.’

‘Surely that sort of thing’s confidential,’ she said, harking back to their earlier conversation.

He shrugged.

‘Only telling you what I know.’

He took a piece of prawn toast, offered the carton around. Chinese was the only food he ever shared, and then only after he’d loaded up his plate first.

‘Shall we watch In-Depth? Might be something about it on that.’

We were treated to yet another airing of Harry Connor’s statement about the arrest followed by an interview with Fiona Jensen, the effortlessly glamorous news anchor, and Andrew Wilson, a professor of criminology at York University.

‘It’s national television. You’d think the fella might have trimmed his nasal hair,’ Matty muttered.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.